Disney for the weekend: stranded

This feature is all about Disney and I'll be posting things from Disney movie reviews to reviews of Disney restaurants.

Today I'm sharing a mini-trip report from a partially impromptu Disney trip I ended up taking earlier this week!

For those of you who don't know, I'm getting ready to move to Orlando in the very near future. Last Friday, I went with my husband (Coda) and my brother (Michael) to look at apartments. We drove down on Friday and arrived in Orlando that evening. But before the apartment search began we had a little fun planned! That night we had plans for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!

We got to the Magic Kingdom around 6pm and headed straight into the park. Michael had only been to Magic Kingdom once before and that trip lasted only a couple hours, so I was really excited to show him the ropes! Our first stop was for dinner. Michael grabbed a meal from Casey's and Coda and I had chicken pot pie at Columbia Harbor House.

Once our bellies were full, we jumped right to the rides! We rode the Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Peter Pan's Flight, It's a Small World, Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid, Space Mountain, and the Seven Dwarves Mine Train.

We also did a ton of trick-or-treating, landing an entire backpack crammed full of candy (the good kind)! We saw the parade twice and the Hallowishes fireworks show was completely amazing! We ended up leaving around 1am, not getting to our room (first time using AirBNB) and to sleep until 2 in the morning!

The rest of the weekend was spent searching for apartments (we found one) and visiting Ikea for the first time ever! We spent some time at Disney Springs having Ghirardelli ice cream and watching the street performers and just having a generally awesome time! But then the hurricane happened and completely flooded all the roads leading back home to North Carolina. We were stranded.

Michael ended up buying a plane ticket home on Monday because he had to be at work and Coda and I were able to get a room at Disney World using our timeshare since so many people had to cancel due to weather. As far as places to be stranded, Disney honestly wasn't that bad! On Tuesday, we checked into Saratoga Springs Resort. We had a great view of Disney Springs from our balcony!

Once we were settled, we went to Epcot where the Food and Wine Festival was taking place. Coda tried some kind of honey craft beer and I had a Dole Whip with rum! Delicious! We rode Test Track, Spaceship Earth, The Seas With Nemo and Friends, Ellen's Energy Adventure, and Journey Into Imagination. We grabbed a quick dinner at the Lotus Blossom Cafe in China and called it an early night.

On Wednesday, we checked the weather and roads before heading down to the desk and booking another night, since it was apparent we couldn't drive home that day either. Then we hopped a bus to Hollywood Studios. The only rides we went on were Tower of Terror and The Great Movie Ride.

We had a salad at ABC Commissary and spent the rest of the afternoon roaming around and taking in the sights. We headed back to the room to relax (we were exhausted) and ordered pizza for dinner. The evening was spent roaming around Disney Springs, just a short walk away from our resort, before going to bed early in preparation for the next day's journey home.

We woke up bright and early on Thursday and got on the road home. We had to take a detour around the large chunk of I-95 that was closed, costing us about an extra two hours on the way home. We finally made it home and only saw one really scary river that was WAY too close to the bridge we were driving on. Our dogs were thrilled to see us and we were thrilled to be home, but we weren't too torn up over our two days stranded at Disney World!